big pound in chest

[john2live]

Hi. 27 year old male. Ive felt palpations off and on for about 2 years. Sometimes i wont have them for over a month. When it first started 2 years ago, i had an ultra sound of heart that came back normal, I have also had an i think ekg in the er and that was normal. Meaning they never found what causing this. Well today i felt palpation when i was sitting down and it was the biggest 1 thump/pound i have ever got. Its not racing or anything its just i will be sitting and all of the sudden boom a big pound i feel. What is causing this? Afraid im gonna die or something. When i felt it i think i felt it in my head as well.

Any input please

Thanks

[Flycaster305]

I would contact a cardiologist.  There are as yarrow suggests benign heart beats, but some are not.  Often, wearing a heart monitor for 24/48 hours will pick up what kind of heart beat issues you have.  Because it is a concern, let the experts sort it out.

[yarrow]

You need to understand how the heart beats, plus its electrical system, in order to get an idea of what's going on.  You can find a good explanation with lots of links just by googling 'heart' and 'wikipedia'.  It's not rocket science, but you do have to think about it.  There are also excellent videos of all this at youtube.  You will be a lot less scared if you understand the basic system.

In an harmless palpitation like yours, all that's going on is that the heart is tad irritable (no one knows why, really) and for some reason, it contracts slightly earlier than usual.  Because this is an early beat, the big pumping chambers, the ventricles, don't have a chance to fill with much blood, so you don't usually feel that beat.  However, there's a slight delay before the next regularly scheduled beat, and in that time, there's an opportunity for the heart--which is elastic--to get a little fuller than usual.  Now, the heart's job is to empty out as much as it can with each beat, and since it's now got a slightly larger quantity of blood in it, it gives an extra hard pump to do just that.  THAT is the big thump you feel.

Everyone--everyone--has these beats sometimes, but most people do not feel them.  When they are felt, they are called palpitations.  In most cases--particularly in a healthy young person, they are not dangerous.  But if you're aware of them, they are a nuisance, and if you concentrate on them too much,  you can wind up with an anxiety disorder called 'cardiac neurosis' (you can google that).  When there's nothing wrong with your heart, that's when you need to have a chat with your doc about anxiety and panic, and meds to help with that.

Here's a doctor demonstrating various kinds of irregular heartbeats (I hope medhelp will let this be posted, because it's both funny and instructive):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvWzm7ICzhw&feature=related

If medhelp won't post the above URL, you can get to it by going to youtube and typing in "Dr. Callan" and "cardiac arrhythmias."